"Lawfare and Wearfare in Turkey
by Hilal Elver Friday, Apr 11 2008, 7:28am
greece / turkey / cyprus / religion / non anarchist press
(Hilal Elver is a visiting professor of global and international studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara and an editor of Middle East Report.)
With war on its eastern borders, and renewed turmoil inside them, Turkey is transfixed by something else entirely: the desire of university-age women to wear the Muslim headscarf on campus, a seemingly innocent sartorial choice that has been forbidden by the courts, off and on, since 1980. At public meetings and street demonstrations, in art exhibits, TV ads, and dance and music performances, headscarf opponents argue vociferously that removing the ban will be the first step backward to the musty old days of the Ottoman Empire. A quieter majority of 70 percent, according to a recent poll, thinks that pious students should be allowed to cover their heads, perhaps because approximately 64 percent of Turkish women do so in daily life. There is almost no middle ground between the two poles: Even completely apolitical Turks have gravitated one way or another."
More:Lawfare and Wearfare in Turkey - Greece / Turkey / Cyprus Religion - Anarkismo
